Category: Natural History
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Summer is Bear Time
When you are where wild bears live you learn to pay attention to the rhythm of the land and yourself. ~Linda Jo Hunter This summer seems to be racing by and it hit me last week that I have not made a pilgrimage to our coastal wildlife refuges for my fix of summer bears. So,… Read more…
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Flash Mob, Part 2
I believe alien life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is less so. Some say it has yet to appear on planet Earth. ~Stephen Hawking I returned Friday from a few days helping out my mom in the mountains of Virginia and have been slugging around the house and yard trying to… Read more…
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Flash Mob
What makes photography an strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time. ~John Berger My macro light has been giving me trouble for a while now and we finally put in an order for a new one last year. It has been on backorder ever since. I started looking at reviews… Read more…
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Flower Fireworks
Against a dark sky, all flowers look like fireworks. ~Gilbert K. Chesterton It is a strange Fourth of July this year for me. I have mixed emotions about the things I see happening in our country (and our world). And, while I have enjoyed watching the big firework displays offered in many communities, I am… Read more…
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Moving South Along the Parkway
It was as if all the world might be composed of nothing but valley and ridge. ~Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain This is part two of our trip last month down the Blue Ridge Parkway. After the crazy weather at Mount Mitchell, we headed to our next destination, a somewhat out of the way campground, Balsam… Read more…
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Walking on Water
Walking on water is better than drowning. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo A couple of days after we rehabbed our salamander pools, I saw a Water Strider skating across the surface of one. How did it find this new water so quickly? Striders are true bugs (Hemiptera), have wings, and can disperse by flying. Research suggests that… Read more…
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Clean It Out and They Will Come
When your environment is clean you feel happy motivated and healthy. ~Lailah Gifty Akita I mentioned in an earlier post that we finally got around to cleaning out our two water gardens (aka salamander pools) in November. One had sprung a leak mid-way up its height a couple of years ago. It still held enough… Read more…
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Woods Watching
I’m always astonished by a forest. It makes me realise that the fantasy of nature is much larger than my own fantasy. I still have things to learn. ~ Gunter Grass Things have slowed a bit on the trail cameras out back, but we still get some nice surprises from time to time. Here are… Read more…
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Hunting in Huntington
It’s all about whose where on the food chain. ~Len Wein My trip last weekend included some time at both Myrtle Beach State Park and nearby Huntington Beach State Park. While hanging with friends at the former park, I was impressed by the amount of bird activity and marine life (from the ocean pier) we… Read more…
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Flight Path
Birds learn how to fly, never knowing where the flight will take them. ~Mark Nepo This is a brief update on the recent posts where I shared a few sightings of tagged birds – one, a Common Raven in Yellowstone, and three American Oystercatchers on Masonboro Island in southeastern North Carolina. First, the shorebirds at… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 